The Life (musical)

The Life
Original Cast Recording
Music	Cy Coleman
Lyrics	Ira Gasman
Book	David Newman Ira Gasman Cy Coleman
Productions	1990 Off-Broadway 1997 Broadway 2017 London

The Life is a musical with a book by David Newman, Ira Gasman and Cy Coleman, music by Coleman, and lyrics by Gasman.

Based on an original idea by Gasman, the show explores the underbelly of Times Square's 42nd Street, inhabited by pimps and prostitutes, druggies and dealers, and runaways and street people in the era prior to its Disneyfication.

Ira Gasman recalls walking on 42nd Street (in New York City) and seeing an arrest: "What theatre, I thought, right there in the street! It got me thinking about this show." After the Off-Broadway production in 1990, in 1994 Coleman and Gassman asked David Newman to help re-write the show. Newman: ""Whatever it was back when they did the workshop, it's totally different now..." Coleman brought in the director Michael Blakemore, who "steered the show along a tightrope, careful not to fall into the seediness below, toward a common humanity to which audiences can relate."

The show was first produced at the Off-Broadway Westbeth Theatre, running from July 30, 1990 to August 16, 1990. Joe Layton directed and choreographed, with a cast that featured Chuck Cooper, Lillias White, and Mamie Duncan-Gibbs.

The Broadway production, directed by Michael Blakemore, opened on April 26, 1997 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where it closed on June 7, 1998 after for 466 performances and 21 previews. Among the large cast were Pamela Isaacs, Chuck Cooper, Bellamy Young, Lillias White, and Sam Harris, winner of the first Star Search television competition in 1984. Choreography was by Joey McKneely, scenic design by Robin Wagner, costume design by Martin Pakledinaz, and lighting design by Richard Pilbrow.